UVALDE | A Texas school shooting that killed 21 on Tuesday in addition to the shooter has thrown the United States back into a chronic nightmare, with Joe Biden urging a jump start to regulate guns.
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An 18-year-old opened fire at an elementary school in Texas, killing 19 students as young as 10 years old and two teachers, before being killed himself.
“It is time to turn pain into action,” reacted the American president, visibly moved, in a solemn address at the White House.
“When for God’s sake are we going to face the gun lobby?” Biden said, saying he was “sick and tired” over the litany of school shootings.
The shooter killed his victims “in an atrocious and senseless way” in the town of Uvalde (about 130 km west of San Antonio), said Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
Identified as Salvador Ramos, he was killed by police, officials with the Texas Department of Public Safety said.
Photo Instagram
The alleged shooter, Salvador Ramos.
“At this time, 19 children have been killed by this evil shooter, along with two teachers from this school,” Department spokesman Lt. Chris Olivarez told NBC News.
Children under 10 years old
More than a dozen children were also injured, according to information from Texas hospitals.
The shooter was wearing at least a rifle and a paramilitary outfit, Sergeant Erick Estrada told CNN.
Salvador Ramos, of American nationality, would have first targeted his grandmother, whose state of health remained to be clarified, before going to school by car to perpetrate his massacre there.
Photo REUTERS
The suspect allegedly first shot his grandmother, fled in a vehicle, crashed near the school, abandoned his vehicle (pictured) and then entered the school pulling.
The motives for this attack, one of the worst in a school for years, remain unknown for the moment.
More than 500 children, nearly 90% of whom are Hispanic, were studying at the facility during the 2020-2021 school year, according to state data.
Videos shared on social networks showed children evacuated in an emergency, shaking hands or running in small groups towards yellow school buses, in front of this establishment with low and flat buildings, typical of the southern United States.
Eva Mireles, a teacher, was shot and killed while trying to protect her students, her aunt Lydia Martinez Delgado told the New York Times. “I am furious that these shootings continue, these children are innocent, guns should not be readily available to everyone,” she told US media.
Photo Robb School website
Eva Mireles, a 4th grade teacher, married with a daughter, was killed in the shooting.
“Broken Heart”
The shooting happened while Joe Biden was on his way home from a tour of Asia. He spoke in the evening, upon his arrival at the White House.
“Too much is too much,” said Vice President Kamala Harris, calling for “action” in the face of gun violence, a national scourge.
“Our hearts continue to be broken,” she said. “We must find the courage to act,” she added to the address of Congress, powerless to legislate despite the tragedies.
Pope Francis also said on Wednesday that he was “heartbroken” by this tragedy. “It’s time to say ‘enough’ to the uncontrolled arms trade,” he also said.
France shares the “shock and pain of the American people” as well as the “anger” of those who oppose the proliferation of firearms in the United States, President Emmanuel Macron said in a tweet.
Photo taken from Instagram
A photo of weapons posted on the Instagram account of the possible author of the shooting.
“We must put an end to this daily horror in the United States,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez tweeted, while German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said his thoughts were with the victims “of this inconceivable massacre.”
For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky offered his condolences to the victims and lamented that there are “victims of shooters in peacetime”.
Sterile debate
The White House ordered flags to be flown at half-mast in all public buildings to “honor the victims” of Uvalde.
The attack plunged the country back into the throes of school shootings, which are frequently repeated with shocking images of traumatized students forced to confine themselves to their classrooms before being evacuated by law enforcement and parents panicked, desperate to hear from their children.
The drama is reminiscent of that of Sandy Hook Elementary School, which occurred in 2012 in Connecticut, where a 20-year-old unbalanced man killed 26 people, including 20 children aged 6 and 7, before committing suicide.
Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator from this state in the northeastern United States, “begged” his elected colleagues on Tuesday to act, assuring that these tragedies were not “inevitable”.
“It only happens in this country, and nowhere else. In no other country do children go to school thinking they might get shot.”
America was also particularly marked by a shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, which killed 17 people, the majority of them teenagers, in 2018.
This new killing is sure to reignite criticism of the proliferation of firearms in the United States, a debate that is almost empty given the absence of hope of a passage by Congress of an ambitious national law. On the question.
The leader of the Democrats in Congress, Nancy Pelosi, denounced a “monstrous act which stole the future of dear children”. “There are no words that can describe the pain and outrage at the cold-blooded slaughter of little schoolchildren and a teacher,” she wrote in a statement.
THE REPETITION OF KILLINGS IN SCHOOLS
Uvalde, Texas, May 24, 2022
An 18-year-old man kills 19 students and two adults at Robb Primary School in the town of Uvalde.
Oxford, Michigan, November 30, 2021
A 15-year-old murders four students on the grounds of a school north of Detroit. His parents are also being prosecuted.
Santa Clarita, Californie, November 14, 2019
A 16-year-old marks his birthday by killing two comrades and injuring three others.
Santa Fe, Texas, May 18, 2018
A 17-year-old student mows down 20 people in his high school.
Parkland, Florida, February 14, 2018
On Valentine’s Day, Nikolas Cruz kills 17 people at a high school, from which the 19-year-old was expelled for disciplinary reasons.
Benton, Kentucky, January 23, 2018
A 15-year-old student shoots two students at Marshall County High School with a handgun.
Roseburg, Oregon, October 1, 2015
A 26-year-old student gunned down nine people at Umpqua Community College.
Oakland, Californie, 2 avril 2012
A former student methodically slaughters seven people in the small university of Oikos. He died seven years later in prison.
Newtown, Connecticut, December 14, 2012
After shooting his mother, Adam Lanza, 20, kills 26 people, including 20 children aged 6 and 7, in a primary school before taking his own life.
Virginia Tech University, Virginia, April 16, 2007
A student kills 32 with his two semi-automatic pistols, before committing suicide.
Columbine, Colorado, 20 avril 1999
Two 17- and 18-year-old Columbine High school students gun down 12 classmates and a teacher before committing suicide in the library.
Austin, Texas, 1is August 1966
A man at the top of the tower of the University of Texas at Austin fired for more than 90 minutes and killed fifteen people.